As one example, US2010/138825A1 by Harrop (assigned to VMware, Inc.) describes a mechanism for providing configuration files using configuration templates.
In general terms, a configuration file contains configuration information which defines how an application program will interact with various resources provided by a computer device, and defines how the runtime execution environment of this computer device needs to be adapted in order to support the application. Traditionally, the configuration file would be written in a text-based format such as ASCII. More recently, the configuration information is written in a markup language such as XML. The configuration information may be structured to follow a predetermined schema. It is desired that the configuration files should be robust and suitable even for open-ended runtime execution environments that bring together resources from many different sources and vendors. The complex nature of modern computer devices means that a large volume of configuration information is often required. The configuration information may be distributed among many different parts of the application and may be supplied in several different formats, even within the same application.
There is a desire to make operation of the computer device more efficient, in particular by reducing the workload required to deploy an application program into a runtime execution environment. Therefore, it is known to provide templates containing frequently-needed configuration information. These templates may exist in multiple versions, and from multiple sources.
When an application is deployed, two or more configuration files may be encountered having the same file name. Thus, a file name conflict may occur in relation to the intended runtime instance of the application program. In this situation, the deployment process may display a warning to the user and require manual intervention to resolve the file conflict. Usually, the user may choose only one of the configuration files in preference to any of the others. As a result, configuration information in the other, not-chosen, configuration files is typically ignored or lost.
The example embodiments have been provided with a view to addressing at least some of the difficulties that are encountered in current computer devices, whether those difficulties have been specifically mentioned above or will otherwise be appreciated by the person of ordinary skill in the art from the discussion herein. At least in some of the following example embodiments, it is desired to provide an improved mechanism for providing configuration files of an application program in a computer device.